Counter Trey

Redskins Locker Room

with gibbs formation shifts and motions, the opposing lbs will be confused long enough where the weak side lbs shouldnt be there in time. thats the whole point in his motion pkgs and form shifts. even though the counter takes longer to set up, lbs and dbs still have to wonder about gibbs favorite..... play action.

"Joe asked me, 'What do you think, Buges?' " said Bugel after the game. "Breaux and I both said, 'Don't give up on the Counter.' They'd been playing a stunting type of defense, a guessing defense, and they'd guessed right in the first quarter and given us a couple of minuses on that play. Against stunting defenses like the Broncos use you have to pull your guard and the tackle to the opposite side. It's a precision play, and when the timing's a little off, well, it can look ugly. Maybe in the first quarter we were a little overanxious, and the timing wasn't right. But Breaux and I both felt it would come."

Washington started its third drive of the quarter on its own 26. On first down Clark curled inside for a 16-yard reception. "It was a cover-three zone," he said. "They were laying back. There was a big hole. Maybe it was because they'd been burned already. "The next play was Smith's biggie, 58 yards for a touchdown on the Counter over the right side, with Jacoby and McKenzie pulling and tight ends Didier and Don Warren cutting off the pursuit. "It seemed like it was going to be a tight squeeze," said Smith. "I had to take it inside. I don't know, it just popped."

Smith had run for only 126 yards during the regular season but had gained 66 and 72 yards, respectively, in Washington's two previous postseason games. He was a surprise starter, at least to the 73,302 fans in the stands and to the 45 Broncos on the sideline who saw George Rogers introduced with the Redskins' offense. Gibbs said he had decided to start Smith on Saturday night. He thought the Broncos would be pinching inside and he wanted someone speedier than Rogers in the lineup.

"We told Smith he was starting right before the kickoff," said Bugel. "He took it very calmly. We told him we were going to run outside at the beginning and we wanted him in there for five or six plays. We didn't tell him earlier because we didn't want to make him nervous. We didn't want the guy vomiting in the locker room, like we'd have to throw a smoke bomb to get him out on the field."

Smith's 58-yard TD put Washington ahead 21-10, and the Broncos were in shock. On the sideline the Redskins linemen were telling Bugel to keep calling the Counter. "The Broncos were playing a variety of Buddy Ryan's Bear defense, where they line up men over both guards and the center," said Bugel. "So we went to a counterattack. If you hit it right against that defense, you can break something big."

For those of you who either aren't old enough to remember or you just became a fan. Here is the Gibb's bread and butter play. This WP article gives the perfect description of it:

Though the Redskins kept their offense mostly simple in preseason games this summer, Gibbs already has employed some of the classic plays in his arsenal.

They included the counter trey, once the Redskins' signature running play that Gibbs implemented his first season and used for years to take advantage of his gifted and mobile offensive line, then as now coached by Joe Bugel. In the counter trey, Bostic, the center, right guard Mark May and right tackle George Starke would block to the left, giving the appearance of a run to the left. Left guard Russ Grimm and left tackle Joe Jacoby would then pull out from their positions and head around the right corner and down the field looking for linebackers and defensive backs to flatten.

The running back would take a step to the left to draw the defense to that side, then take a handoff from the quarterback and head right behind Grimm and Jacoby, with defenders often scattered like so many bowling pins along the way.

Now just imagine Randy Thomas and Chris Samuels running right at the defense full speed with Portis following. This play is great!

Just for the record RP the tackles go in reverse order. G. Stark was a L/T and J. Jacoby was a R/T.....not that it really matters now.

Yeah!! I know DB. I don't know why I even bothered to revisit this thread. I just found it rather odd that RP had the entire line rearranged, including Grimm and May. The only player on that line he had positioned correctly was Bostic.

Just for the record RP the tackles go in reverse order. G. Stark was a L/T and J. Jacoby was a R/T.....not that it really matters now.

Actually, Jacoby was the Skins starting LT at the beginning of Gibbs 1.0, until the Skins acquired Jim Lachey in the Jay Schroeder trade before the '88 season. Only then did Jacoby move over to RT. George Starke was the starting RT in Gibbs' first few seasons, and he was the first of the Hogs to be replaced.

Yeah!! I know DB. I don't know why I even bothered to revisit this thread. I just found it rather odd that RP had the entire line rearranged, including Grimm and May. The only player on that line he had positioned correctly was Bostic.

Check out this link for Super Bowl XVIII, and scroll down to the starting lineups

Actually, Jacoby was the Skins starting LT at the beginning of Gibbs 1.0, until the Skins acquired Jim Lachey in the Jay Schroeder trade before the '88 season. Only then did Jacoby move over to RT. George Starke was the starting RT in Gibbs' first few seasons, and he was the first of the Hogs to be replaced.

If we're talking about the origional Hogs: Starke/May/Bostic/Grimm/Jacoby from left to right.

If we're talking about the origional Hogs: Starke/May/Bostic/Grimm/Jacoby from left to right.

All I know is, Big Jake started at LT in Super Bowls XVII and XVIII and Starke started at RT. Grimm started at LG in both. Jacoby and Grimm pulling on the counter trey is the quintessential Hogs play in my mind.